Door-plate



(No Model.)

E, C. BARTUN.

DOOR PLATE.

No. 332,775. Patented Dee. 22, v1885.

N. PETERS. Phnwunwgnpnu by the cleaning of the plate.

NrTnn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ELIJAH C. BARTON, OF EAST HAMPTON, CONNECTICUT.

DOOR-PLATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 332,775, dated December 22, 1885.

Application tiled July 23, 1885.

T0 all whom it may concern.-

Beit known that I, ELIJAH C. BARTON, of East Hampton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Connecticut, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Door- Plates, of which the following is a description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, where- Figure l is a front View 0f a door-plate embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a rear View of the same with parts broken away to show construction. The clamp-plate is shown on the right as extending in dotted outline. Fig. 3 is a view in cross-section through the plate, backing, and clamp, and in side view of a letter-block on piane denoted by line X X of Fig. l. Fig. L is a detail sectional View of a part of the plate on line Y Y of Fig. 2.

The object of my invention is to provide a door-plate in which'the letters making up any name may be easily arranged and secured; and to this end it consists in a frame-like plate with an opening through it for the display of the faces of the removable letterblocks, in combination with the letter-block and the clamp for holding them, as more particularly hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings, the letter A denotes a door or name plate, preferably of metal, cast to shape with the central opening, A', through the plate, and the recess A2 in the back-of it for the reception of the letterblock B and the clamp C, so as to leave a dat or plane back for contact with the door or other surface to which the plate is adapted tobe fastened. This plate may be made in any desirable shape and of any material, but is preferably of ametal that is capable of high polish or elaborate ornamentation in casting to shape and finishing; and one advantage of my construction is that when the plate becomes tarnished, as by wear, the letters can be easily removed, the plate repolished, and theletters replaced without having been soiled The blocks are preferably of metal, and ,bear any desirable form of letter, iiush, sunk, or raised, and of any desired style of type, with a background suitable to the design of the plate. These letter-blocks are enough higher than the opening through the plate (see Fig. 3) to enable the plate to overlap on top and bottom the blocks which are placed side by side in the Serial No. 172,444. (No model.)

plate in the order necessary to spell out any given name, and along the back of the blocks is placed a backing of some soft material, as thick cloth, felt, or leather, with a clampingplate, C, back of that, and having in each end slots C2, each deep enough to allow the plate to be moved endwise for the purpose of engaging or disengaging either end of it from below the broadened head of the studs C3,that project from the back of the plate near each end of the opening in it. The object of the backing is to enable the several blocks to be all held in piace with a firm and practically uniform pressure from the single clampingplate, irrespective of any slight irregularities in the thickness of the blocks or surface of the back of the plate on which they rest.

The plate is provided with screw-holes, or bears bolts or like means for attaching it to a door or other surface.

By means of my Within-described invention a name-plate may be quickly provided, ofany desirable grade as to quality and cost, and after use with one name the same plate maybe tted with another name,or the same name replaced with letters of a different style and at a slight cost, and in its simplest and cheapest form the plate is of comparatively slight cost.

I claim as my invention- 1. The combination, with the recessed namepiate having an opening for the display of letters, and adapted to be secured to a door or other surface, of the series of removable letter-blocks, an elastic backing for said letter-blocks, and a clamping bar or plate secured to the narneplate upon said elastic backing by means of studs or screws, substantially as described, the said letters and their securing devices all being Within the recess and below the plane of the rear edge of the name-plate.

2. In combination, a door-plate, A, having the opening A and the recess A2, and bearing the studs C3 with broadened ends, the removable letter-blocks B, and the clamping-plate C', withzslots C2 in the ends, all substantially as described.

ELLIAH C. BARTON.

Witnesses:

EZRA G. GONE, AUGUsTUs H. OONKLIN. 

